Today’s Special:  Totto Spicy Ramen, Totto Ramen, New York

So you know that ramen is a big deal, right? Especially here in New York. Like, almost as big a deal as pizza. Wellllll maybe at this exact culinary moment in time, perhaps bigger than pizza. With ramen burgers causing crazy lines and ramen master Ivan Orkin opening up some slurp shops, everyone wants broth-stained shirts.

Even me. It’s taken a while, but I’m into it. Especially the styles with lighter broths. Or without any broth! (Future post in the works…) I don’t shy away from fat (More butter, please?), but I do shy away from tonkotsu style ramen, which is probably the most popular. Tonkotsu broth is known for its creamy richness; richness that can only come when you simmer bones for a long long time, and they render out all their fatty, collagen, gelatinous goodness. For me, it’s too much, but for the vast majority of ramen lovers, it’s heaven.

Transcendent ramen for me has been the rich chicken broth of Totto Ramen. The bird just produces a slightly leaner broth than the pig, and I’m down with that. And I like mine spicy, with the additions of a nitamago egg, some corn, and seasoned avocado. You can’t see the springy noodles in this shot, but believe me, they are there, soaking up the magical broth and waiting for me to dig around and lift so that I can slurp, slurp, slurp. Just talk to my silk blouse. She’s not very happy.

Oh, and for those of you who only know ramen from instant packages? Get off that bus and try to find the real thing!

Oh oh:  Cream and Sugar turns five today! FIVE. Thank you for reading.

Totto Ramen
366 West 52nd St or 464 West 51st St, New York

Today’s Special: Pea, burrata, and mint crostini, Gjelina, Los Angeles

Like everyone else and their brother, I’m really ready for spring to arrive. I know that March is never an enjoyable month (spring forward, winter’s strong grip, the Ides), but this March seems particularly awful. Perhaps it’s because this year is the first time I’ve had to deal with the doldrums wholeheartedly. Last year, I was overcome with excitement and nerves and stress with my big move to U.S. The year before that, I was planning a trip to Turkey. And the year before that, I was still in awe of my first winter (in Vancouver) without snow on the ground or Arctic temperatures. Vancouver also always has green grass, so even when you haven’t seen the sun for (what feels like) months, the green of Vancouver can be powerful. Here in New York, it’s a lot of… grey. The concrete jungle of the Big Apple loses a bit of its sparkle in the winter, and by March we are gagging for the green and sun and mild weather of a new season.

The past few weeks I’ve been looking at this picture of a dish I had in Los Angeles last month and trying to harness all my mental power toward forcing the green to sprout. The sweet peas and pea tendrils, the luscious burrata, and the pop of mint have you daydreaming about running barefoot in a meadow wearing some sort of loose cotton ensemble. Like a laundry detergent commercial. You can’t help but feel the sun on your face and smell all the buds in bloom. Add that you partake of these crostini in the dreamy beachy hood of Venice and your daydream is upgraded to a spread in a swank fashion or lifestyle magazine.

And one of my favourite things about this plate of spring? I don’t have to pop an antihistamine to enjoy it.

Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

Today’s Special: Baked leftover pastry scraps

Hold it right there, buster. I better not see you re-rolling your pastry scraps. In a cold kitchen, with cold hands, you toiled to ensure that your butter was not overworked. You can’t negate that effort by re-rolling and watching your tender dough go from flaky to tough. I also better not see you throwing them out. That’s a bellyload of flaky pastry that should be celebrated!

Grab your kitchen shears and chop up your scraps into chip-like shapes. Load them onto a parchment lined baking pan and stick them in a 350-degree oven for around 15 minutes or so. Just until golden. Wait! I better see you dressing them up a bit before putting them in the oven. Sea salt and turbinado sugar. Maybe some cinnamon? Ohhhh… how about fleur de sel and black pepper to have you dreaming of a pot pie? Get creative. Lose the guilt for eating butter-laden chips by reminding yourself you didn’t waste a scrap.

Today’s Special:  Caprese sandwich, Sullivan Street Bakery (Chelsea location), New York

Forgive me. I forgot about this sandwich. I came across the photo and cursed myself for not posting about it at the height of summer, at the height of tomatoes. I don’t even know if the Sullivan Street Bakery is still making this sandwich at this time of year. I can pretty much guarantee, however, that whatever kind of sandwiches they’re making, you’re going to love them.

As a big fan of Jim Lahey and his no-knead bread method, I made sure that the SSB was on my list of places to visit. But, with the original location in Hell’s Kitchen and the second in Chelsea, I never found myself in the neighbourhood (I’m not a West side kind of girl), and a weekend trek was just too much of a trek. Then came Summer Fridays at work. By working extra each day, I could get every second Friday afternoon off.  I could hardly say no. I promised myself I wouldn’t spend that time cleaning house or doing laundry. On one hot summer Friday, I made a list of Chelsea galleries to visit and a beeline for the Chelsea SSB.

The sandwich screams “fresh!” Fresh pizza bianca, fresh heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella. All brought together with some grassy slips of olive oil. The cheese was so fresh that I had a puddle of milky whey gracing my plate from the pressure that my hands brought while eating. Oh, and there was a sprinkling of sea salt. My perfect bite(s) came when my  teeth cut through a juicy tomato, then the creamy cheese, then the crack of a salt crystal.  More, please.

Sullivan Street Bakery 236 9th Avenue, New York

Today’s Special: Mille crepe cake, Lady M Confections, New York

You might have heard about this cake before. It makes many appearances on television, on the Web, and in print as a “best” thing to eat or “must try” in New York, and oh-so-ever rightly so. You cannot dismiss a dessert that’s built on the skill of  a pastry chef to one, create impeccable paper-thin crepes; two, layer them on top of one another with a spackle of whipped cream; and three, finish it off with a bruleed sugar topping. The look of this Lady M confection commands your attention.  And then there’s the eating. Before my fork hit the cake, I was thinking I would have a blissful 10 minutes of eating what might be a pancake cake: spongey and doughy, yet light because they’re only crepes, not silver dollars. But once my fork did hit the cake and descended into each layer, I knew I was in for something much for fun. The pressure of the tines on the crepes pushed forth what seemed like an impossible amount of cream. There were so many crepes and yet so much cream. That skilled pastry chef has a big trick up her sleeve for hiding all of that sweet, rich cream. So, this isn’t a cake of crepes layered with cream; it’s a cake of cream held together by crepes. This Cream hit the jackpot. And then to have the flavour of creme brulee accent each bite with that golden top? There were no complaints from me for paying the $8 + tax + automatic 18% gratuity. I skipped the $6 coffee because I knew I was only going to be about 10 minutes, but you know, there are other more obvious reasons to skip it. Wait for a table, turn off the world for a bit, bliss out.

Lady M Confections
41 E 78th Street, New York

Today’s special: Duck rillettes and egg salad crostini, Colonie, Brooklyn

I chose to live in the Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn because it was an area that became familiar and dear to my heart after a number of visits to friends who lived in that ‘hood. The brownstones, the trees, the mix of young people, families, and lifers, whose families have lived in the area for generations. Oh, and the restaurants. Williamsburg is tops for Brooklyn trendy, but my neighbourhood always ends up just plain tops. Reviews of places always mention the subway trip from the city being worth it. And hardly a trip it is. It may be twenty minutes for Manhattanites to get to some of the neighbourhood haunts, but for me? A five to ten minute walk. So so dangerous to the waistline and the pocketbook.

Ten minutes to Colonie on Atlantic Avenue from my apartment. And that’s considered far by New Yorker standards. Although I generally hate small plate eating, you can manage it very well at Colonie, especially if there’s only two of you. (They have big plates too, but the small ones and the salads sounded so much more interesting.) The uniquely topped and well-sized crostini definitely help you make the small become satisfying. Although I had read that the ricotta crostini were outstanding, the server’s sell on the egg salad with bone marrow and the duck rillettes with rhubarb meant that the ricotta could wait.  My affinity for duck won out over my aversion to pasty meat, and I was thankfully rewarded with rillettes that looked just a bit manhandled by a fork. The sour rhubarb paired well with the rich meat. The egg salad was was more like extra creamy scrambled eggs, with the bone marrow and veal jus acting like dollops of melted butter: salty and rich. A gold star to whoever chose and toasted the bread. It was crispy enough to hold the weight of the toppings and offer textural contrast, yet it was still chewy enough not to shatter during a bite (no knife and fork for crostini!).

Each of the other dishes I tried easily could receive its own post as well.
So, so dangerous.

Colonie
127 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn 

Today’s Special: Spanish mackerel at Num Pang, New York

The banh mi is Vietnam’s gift to the sandwich world, but Vietnam is not the only place in that wonderful part of Asia that likes to have fun with two pieces of bread (the French spread themselves around). Cambodia has sandwiches—num pang—made in a similar fashion to banh mi, and lucky for me, a Cambodian chef is making some killer ones in New York City. Missing some of the great catch that was so easy to get in Vancouver, I decided on the mackerel. Juicy and tender, it was a perfect foil to the crusty bread and crisp vegetables. The sauteed leeks added a nice extra bit of savoury. And I have to say, I prefer Num Pang’s denser French bread to the lighter and crispier rolls that most banh mi are made with. But that’s me, a well-known carb addict. Both locations, one in Union Square, the other near Grand Central, are perfect for tourist types, but even more perfect for locals who might be wondering what to eat in those less-than-ideal dining locales. Low on atmosphere, take your sandwich to go and park yourself on a bench. Close your eyes and dream of vacationing along the Mekong.

Num Pang
21 East 12 St, New York

Today’s Special: Whisky bread, Gwynett St

The reservation stars aligned on Saturday. OpenTable presented me with a table for two during prime time at East Williamsburg hot spot Gwynett St. Since opening last fall, the number of positive write ups have been been steadily climbing, with a number of them being published during the last few weeks. My friend and I had a wonderful dinner, letting our hunger guide us to our fair share of menu items, including a maitake mushroom covered in ribbons of salty lardo and a coconut panna cotta touched by all that’s fun and inspiring in molecular gastronomy. The ball got rolling with their baked-to-order whisky bread. With the texture of a biscuit and the aroma of a saloon—in the best possible way—I fell head over heels for this little loaf. The bread could have been cooked a bit longer to achieve a greater contrast between spongy middle and golden crust, but that’s just a quibble. The texture keeps you from filling up on this bread, which has a benefit beyond room for the rest of your meal: leftovers. Toasted and slathered with butter the next morning had me moaning with pleasure and looking to my calendar for an appropriate date to go back for more.

Gwynett St
312 Graham Ave, Williamsburg, New York

Today’s Special: Mixed pupusas, Acajutla

Well, it’s about time that I wave the Team Acajutla flag. It’s no secret that the ladies of Cream and Sugar have a deep affection for these little El Salvadorean meat, bean, and cheese treats, and in Edmonton we are fortunate to have two excellent options. I must confess that while I am firmly on Team Acajutla, I am always beyond happy to smother an El Rancho pupusa in curdito and red sauce. Both versions are about the tastiest treat a girl for ask for. My reasons for loving the Acajutla pupusa are as follows.

1. More cheese. They are cheesier. Period. In my world this is ALWAYS a good thing. Little cheesy bits leak out onto the griddle and become sweet and brown.

2. Avocado sauce. Traditional or not, avocado on top is delightful.

3. Ideal filling to mesa ratio. Beans, cheese, pork. Perfection.

Taste test anyone?

Today’s Special: Sweet and sour eggplant, Ensemble
I know I’m not alone when I say that Dale was not my favourite contestant on Top Chef Canada. My Alberta roots were fond of Connie and my Eastern sensibilities bet on Rob to win. But, Dale won, and we all moved on. Dale moved on by opening up the restaurant Ensemble, and word has it, he’s got a sports bar in the works (where his winnings are going?). My lack of love for him meant it’s taken me a while to give him a chance and try a restaurant that people seem to be liking. The room and service are much less stuffy than I expected and despite the care and artistry that goes into the food, Ensemble has a strong neighbourhood-haunt vibe. Hooray! There is no better place than the West End for neighbourhood-ness. In addition to some fancy cocktails worth their price tag, I had the winning pulled pork and the precious pavlova, and both were delicious enough to leave me wanting a repeat visit. The star of the show though was the sweet and sour eggplant, recently and rightly listed as one of the best things to eat in Vancouver. Almost too pretty to eat, this dish will erase all memories of any watery or rubbery eggplant you’ve ever had to suffer through. Smooth and rich, these little stumps are nestled in baba ghanoush and topped with cool yogurt and sweet tomato. Very precious, Dale, but very perfect.

Ensemble
Smithe & Thurlow, Vancouver